In Myanmar, rising food and fuel prices endanger the poor: UN

Price hikes of up to 35 percent in food and fuel since the coup make it harder for the poor to feed themselves, the UN’s World Food Programme says.

The UN food agency said on Tuesday rising food and fuel prices in Myanmar since a February 1 military coup risk undermining the ability of poor families to feed themselves. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military removed the elected government and detained its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, with protests and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes paralysing parts of the economy. The World Food Programme (WFP) said food prices were rising, with palm oil 20 percent higher in some places around the main city of Yangon since the beginning of February and rice prices up 4 percent in the Yangon and Mandalay areas since the end of February.